PowerCycle

10/09 Three records have fallen. My top speed of 44.4 mph has been smashed. My new record is 51 mph (82 kph). That was a fun ride but I had to hit the brakes because, well, that’s pretty freaking fast on a loaded touring bike. I didn’t think I’d be breaking this record anytime soon but my most miles in one day is now 120.84 miles (194.5 km). The old record from all the way back up in Alaska was 112 miles. The third record was how many hostels I had to go to before finding a room for the night. I didn’t count them but all that riding around helped get me the record of 120 miles.

This was all yesterday (Saturday). I had no intention whatsoever of riding all the way to Salta and tried two times to stop and find a place to sleep. The wind ended both attempts because it was too strong and there wasn’t anywhere to pitch my tent. Eventually it just got the point where it was just as easy to keep going and once I was at 90 miles I had no choice but to break 100.

I was under the impression that the road from San Antonio to Salta was paved all the way. It’s not. The pavement starts at about KM130 out of San Antonio, continues through the huge downhill and then abruptly ends. It picks up again at KM29, 6 miles or so from Salta. Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the wind went from a strong tailwind to a strong headwind as soon as I hit the unpaved section.

The weekend is apparently a horrible time to try and find a room in this city. When I got here it was 6:30pm and I had about an hour before sunset. It took me 2 hours to find a hostel with a room and it ended up being a dorm room ($40 pesos at Nuevo Puesto). It was empty but at 4am a couple people flicked on the light and I had some company. Of course one of them snores but I was so tired I fell back asleep. It helped that people were in the common area playing foosball and laughing until 1am.

I wanted to stay at this place called El Andaluz but they were full. The girl was nice and said if I came back tomorrow at 11am they’ll have a private room with a bath available. I rode over this morning and she wasn’t there but a guy who used to live in Texas was. He said they didn’t have anything available and the girl didn’t leave a note or anything. I felt bad for him because he worked 11pm – 7am and the morning guy hadn’t shown up for work so he was stuck there. I left and 7 miles and many hostels later I found a place at Hostel de Centro ($70 pesos a block from El Andaluz on the same street). Shared bathroom but it seems very quiet and it was the cheapest of the 53 places I’ve been to.

Lunch was $24 US for 12 empanadas and 2 small Cokes. Feel like I’m back in Chile. I’m paid up for 3 more nights which puts me back on the road Thursday morning. Lot’s of shopping/repairing/cleaning to do and my body needs some healing time. My front tire is going flat again, I ripped my shorts this morning and I lost my mouse pad that I bought with my Aunt back in Florida.

GPX track